It was a show of strength by the leading players of Kollywood who raised their voices against Karnataka and in support of Tamilnadu on the ongoing row in the implementation of Hognekkal Drinking Water Project. The protests were organised by their apex body on Friday and included a fast observed by the film stars.
The participation of super star, Rajnikanth was a morale builder of all sorts for the Tamilnadu Government; this is due to the fact that he has identified himself with a Tamilnadu cause despite the fact that he was born in Maharashtra and brought up in Karnataka. His condemnation of the leaders of Karnataka in giving political color to it keeping in mind the ensuing election and saying that this should be nipped in the bud was seen as an upbeat move in Tamilnadu Government in garnering the support of one and all.
While most of the speeches made by rest of the stars were fiery in nature, a note of caution and moderation was seen in the speech of Mr.Vijayakanth, a sitting MLA and otherwise opponent of both the ruling D.M.K. and chief opposition party, AIADMK. He cautioned against retaliating by violence and the issue squarely lay with the Central Government which should resolve it through discussion.
Apart from the film industry, the Advocates belonging to the Madras High Court’s Advocates Association struck off work for a day on Friday to highlight its demand that the Union Government take steps to provide adequate protection to Tamilians in Karnataka. They also took off a procession.
Meanwhile, the T.N.Assembly which is in session recorded its appreciation of the film industry for organizing the strike and fast to demonstrate the protests against the incident of violence and disruption targeting the Tamil Population in Karnataka.
A similar protest was held in Bangalore in which the film stars of Kannada Film Industry participated;but, it did not evoke that amount of publicity as in Tamilnadu. One reason could be the wide coverage given by Sun T.V . of the protests. It could also mean the grip the Kollywood industry holds in deciding the political destiny of Tamilnadu.
…….